KLARA, chemical inventory, database and product registry

Anders Liljeborg, updated 2023-07-24

Short user guide

Link to KLARA: https://secure.port.se/alphaquest/app%5Fkth

Manual for KLARA (in swedish).

How to discard a product, must be used for products registered during a previous inventory.

How to delete a product, only for products registered as "Purchase".

How to upload a new Safety Data Sheet (SDS, MSDS)

How to transfer a product within the department/group

How to organize products into cabinets and shelves.

How to create an estimate of yearly consumption (usually org. solvents).

How to list CMR products in your department.

How to make a risk assessment in KLARA

Documents about barcode reader and printer, and using barcodes in KLARA

 

How to register products during inventory

You access the KLARA system via this link:

https://secure.port.se/alphaquest/app%5Fkth

You are automatically logged in since KLARA is using your KTH login as identification.

If you are a completely new user you will only see "Produktregister", but not the other fields in the left column. The KLARA administrator must give you permissions to do inventory and risk assessment for your department.

Notify the admin when you have accessed KLARA the first time and the permissions will be set up for you.

 

When permissions are set up for you, you are presented with some options depending on what function you have. The main function is "Kemikaliehantering", where you do the inventory.

Here you have the "Produktregister" with more than 15000 registered checmial products.

Since these screen shots are taken from an administrative account there are more options shown than for an account for inventory.


 

Next page is showing some general information about School of Science (Teknikvetenskap) in my case. What info is shown depends on what function you have in KLARA. At the top right is the current period of registration, here the entire year 2021. You can select other years to see what have been registered earlier.

To the left are links to functions to make lists of chemicals, inventory and registration, risk assessment, search etc. These functions are also reachable from the top menues.

At the center you can see how many products are registered at your department.

At the right there is a column with news about the KLARA system.

To reach the inventory function use the top menu "Kemikaliehantering" to activate a sub menu, or click the "Inventering & Registrering" link.


 

 

 

Here the submenus are shown, click on "Inventering/Registrering ", or click on link-button "Inventering & Registrering" to get to where you can enter chemicals.

 

 

 

First check that the year is correct for the ongoing period of inventory. You cannot do inventory for some other year.
Then, in the main area, select the department you should do inventory for. Normally you only see the single department that you are assigned to do inventory for.

 

 

 

Here is shown inventory for a test group called "newtest" belonging to "Tillämpad Fysik"

 

 

 

Below is the page you get at the very first start of a new inventory period. See to it that "Kopiera produkter från föregående inventering och börja inventera" is selected and click OK. In this way all previous products are already in place when you start. You only have to enter the amounts for them.

Of course new products have to be added and products that are no longer in your storage should be deleted from the database.

 


Please note that the text about copying amounts is not correct.

 

 

 

Now you are at the page for your department. You have to expand the building/room/cabinet you may have created earlier, to be able to see the actual chemical products. In this screen shot you click on "Huvudbyggnad" to start expanding.

 

 

 

Below is the page where the actual inventory is made. The page is subdivided into three columns.
  • Left column: All rooms, storages, cabinets and shelves defined in the previous inventory. You can add rooms and storage, more on that later.

  • Middle column: All chemicals from the previous inventory shown for the selected room, storage or shelf hi-lighted in the left column.
    In this simulated inventory there are no previous products.

  • Right column: The product database, here you can search for chemicals that are new for your lab. You should search very careful, it is quite easy to overlook a synonym for a chemical that is already in the database.

    If you absolutely not can find the new chemical in the KLARA database, you can request for a new chemical to be added. This is done via mail to a KLARA administrator. You have to attach an up-to-date materials safety datasheet (MSDS, SDS) according to the CLP standard. This is a safety datasheet that contains the risk symbols with red edge and white background. Older safety datasheets have risk symbols with orange background and is not valid for adding a new chemical product.

To make rooms, storage, cabinets and shelves is a good way to group the many chemicals you have in your labs. Since this is a somewhat simulated inventory, there are no previous products shown here. Further down is shown an example of what it can look like if you have many products in your previous inventory.

 

 

 

Here is shown an example when it is good practice to make separate cabinets and shelves inside a lab room with many products. The lab room "C1:3052 Process" in Albanova Nanolab contains almost all the chemicals used. Here this lab room is selected and all chemicals are displayed in one long column, see the scrollbar to the right. This is not very practical.

This screen dump is from a previous inventory.

 

 

 

Here one shelf is selected, the middle column only displays the products on that shelf.

This screen dump is from a previous inventory.

 

 

 

To do the inventory on products from previous inventory (here copied) you have to click on each item and update the amount to the current value. Please note that amounts are not copied from previous inventory (even if it said so on the initial page).

See further below for details on how to enter the amount for each product.

Discard of products in the list that are no longer in the storage, all used up or expired.

 

To add a new product to the cabinet or shelf, search for it in the upper right field. While you are typing you get suggestions for possible products.
You can use wild cards such as "*" to make a more flexible search.

 

 

 

To finalize your search, click on the magnifying icon, or press "Enter", and you get a list of possible products. You get a list of products containing your search string, as well as a list of synonyms, i.e. same product under a different name.
Click on the product you searched for, and it will be registered into the selected cabinet/shelf.

 

 

Cannot find the chemical

If you absolutely not can find your special chemical in the database, you have to make a request to add a new product. This is done via a mail to a KLARA administrator.

You have to attach an up-to-date materials safety datasheet (MSDS, SDS) according to the CLP standard. This is a safety datasheet that contains the risk symbols with red edge and white background. Older safety datasheets have risk symbols with orange background and is not valid for adding a new chemical product.

In the request, please give the product name exactly as in the SDS, the supplier, CAS-number if available.

 

 

 

Here the product (2-propanol) have been entered into the lab-room/cabinet/shelf.

 

 

 

Since this is a new product registered for the first time, you have to add the amount and supplier, click on the product to do this.

 

 

 

A new sub-window pops up with several fields to be filled out. The most important ones are
  • "Leverantör", i.e. manufacturer/supplier
  • "Mängd", i.e. amount
  • the type of amount, i.e. "liter, kg, ml, mg, etc."
The field "Lagring" is the storage designation, i.e. which cabinet, shelf etc. the chemical is stored in/on. There are also fields for comment "Fritext", expiration date "Bäst före", etc.

 

 

 

Please check that "Inventering" is selected for the registration. This is the default during the period of inventory. Otherwise "Inköp" is the only option.

It can be good practise to register "Inköp" outside the inventory period, thereby keeping the product inventory more up-to-date. This also makes it possible to track the amount consumed.


 

 

 

Please select the correct supplier ("Leverantör"), there are many registered in the KLARA database.

 

 

 

Enter the amount of product and the correct unit.

 

 

 

When you filled out all the necessary fields, click "Save / Spara".

 

 

 

The product is entered as an item into the labroom/cabinet/shelf.

 

 

 

If you need to change anything on the item, just click on the entry, and the fields will be copied to the lower part, where you can change them. Click "Save / Spara" again when you are done.

 

 

 

When you have entered all chemical product in your lab, you can click on "Klar" in the "Status"-area below all the products.

 

 

 

You the get the choice of completely finish the inventory (green). After this you cannot change anything, except adding products as "Inköp".

Or you can take a break and continue the inventory at a later time (yellow).

Or you can cancel the choice and continue the inventory.


 

 

 

Here the inventory is completely finished and closed.

Anders Liljeborg Albanova Nanolab, KTH, SU.